Protecting Educational Opportunity

News of the pending closure of the Carroll County Virginia Virtual Academy is heart-breaking. A long-term solution has been in reach for the last three years.

Legislation I introduced would have created a funding model that would have capped expenditures at about 25 percent less than is currently being spent in traditional brick-and-mortar-style learning environments. It would save money for government, spending less for education while providing families choices in the manner in which students learn while maintaining Virginia curriculum and standards, including meeting requirements of the Standards of Learning tests.

I have also fought for legislation creating a statewide and state-governed program that would allow for greater oversight, more accountability and a predictable and common-sense funding mechanism that would have avoided the enrollment fees Carroll County imposed. It is those fees with which the Roanoke Times editorial staff (“A raw deal on virtual schools,” editorial, May 3) seems to take umbrage.